US Public Education

The surge in the number of disadvantaged children in the nation's public classrooms is a recent phenomenon that has triggered awareness among researchers, public officials and educators.
As a result of the shift to a majority-poor student population, more children than ever now start kindergarten noticeably lagging behind their privileged public school peers.

Americans are now confronted with two radically different visions of public education. Which vision ultimately prevails will go a long way toward determining the quality of the education available to future generations of children.

Public school advocates face a powerful coalition willing to dismantle public education in the United States for a variety of reasons. Teachers and teacher unions, branded as over-paid, liberals, and obstructionist in the right-wing media, make an easy target.